Peace
by trustingHim17
Summary: College is hard as it is, but Grace is finding out the hard way that having something else on your mind at the same time makes even harder. She's searching for something she can't even name. Can she find it? Can it even be found outside of dreams? Can she keep it if she does? Grace is my OC from my LoD 'verse
1. Chapter 1

The door slammed shut behind me, and I leaned against it, my frustrations bubbling out in a deep sigh.

My siblings and I were coming up on spring finals for our first year of college, and I was staying busy preparing for them, but that wasn't what was really bothering me. No, that would be the memories.

Days spent in quiet company. Sarcastic jokes thrown back and forth. Lessons learned through patient and gentle teaching. Friendship, and all the days that brought that friendship into bloom. Simple conversations became tangible memories that took over as flashbacks and, on the rough days that were becoming more and more frequent, robbed my focus.

In the first semester of my Freshman year of high school, I had taken a shop class. I hadn't been very interested when I started, but my choices had been metal shop or art. I couldn't—and still can't, honestly—draw a straight line with a ruler, so I enrolled in metal shop.

I quickly decided I enjoyed the class, but what made it worth attending every day (and getting up at the crack of annoying to do so) was my friendship with the shop instructor.

Jeff and I had quickly become friends—well, as much friends as a fourteen year old and a teacher could be—but that semester had included many days where I came back to the shop outside of my assigned class, or even outside school hours, just to sit and chat with Jeff.

Our friendship grew surprisingly fast, especially considering that by that time I had been wary about making friends. Too many previous "friends" had faded to time as day-to-day life no longer kept us together, and I had long tired of having only friends of convenience. I preferred to be alone than to make a "friend" that would disappear as soon as life changed.

This fear had come to the fore when Jeff announced two weeks before finals that, due to family medical issues, he would be quitting his job and moving to a town sixty miles south. Day-to-day life would no longer keep the friendship running, and I knew the brief friendship would be ending.

But it didn't. Jeff proved himself different from everyone else when he kept up contact. Though I never did get to see him again, we kept up semi-regular phone calls and Facebook messages over the coming years as he moved again, this time to somewhere in New York, my Junior year and I found Camp and fought in the Titan and Giant Wars. I hadn't seen him since that semester of High School, but our friendship had remained.

Then, in the last few months, the phone calls inexplicably slowed, then stopped. He never called me, and whenever I called, he either couldn't talk long or wouldn't answer, promising to call me back. When he did call me back, though, he still couldn't talk more than a couple minutes. I wondered what I had done wrong, but it was never a surprise. I had figured years ago that the friendship would never last. None ever had, and I cherished the time the friendship had continued. But that didn't mean the end wasn't hard. I had come to depend too much on the lasting friendship of my longest friend, and the end of the friendship _hurt_. The pain bubbled up into reliving memories of the beginning, at the shop, and all the phone calls in between, and it would be some time before the pain and the hurt and the longing worked itself out.

Machaela was still in class, so I had our dorm room to myself as I sat against the door, trying to organize my thoughts and shove those memories to the back of my mind.

I wasn't sure what had made today so bad. Something about having too much time to think in my classes combined with a couple of triggers, I guessed, had launched me into a tailspin. Even the slightest unexpected noise, if it happened behind me, had the ability to launch me into a memory. Completely immersed, I would blink five to fifteen minutes later to find I had been moving on autopilot. I tried to temper this by staying busy, but nothing kept me fully grounded except music played loudly enough to drown out my thoughts—the only problem being that I couldn't exactly blast my music in the middle of class.

As finals drew closer and the normal stress of striving to do well took hold, my flashbacks and jumpiness have only increased. I've been running around so much, with so many things to do, I haven't even read a book in nearly a week, and I had another pile of work to do tonight if I wanted to stay caught up. A homework assignment was due in two days, I had a quiz in three, and I still needed to finish studying for my first final, Calculus 2, that I would take in four days.

A soft chuckle sounded from down the hall, and I'm no longer sitting on the floor of my dorm room.

 _I'm sitting on a stool next to a tool cabinet talking to Jeff, who's sitting in the desk chair at the shop computer. We're the only ones in the shop, and he's telling me about the pool table he just bought. According to him, he bought the table from one of his neighbors, and it's a really nice one. Weighing about 750 pounds, the neighbor expected him to disassemble the table instead of lift it when the time came for him to take it home. The neighbor's surprise was palpable, then, when Jeff and ten friends showed up and lifted the table into a trailer, which bowed under the weight, without any issues. Jeff's amused chuckle at the story bounces through my mind even as the memory fades._

I blinked, my eyes moist from the memory and wondering and longing, and a glance at my watch showed about five minutes had passed. There was no way I was going to be able to study, not if I spaced out at every noise my neighbors made.

A book. That's what I needed. A few hours engrossed in a book with some music in the background might reset my stress level enough to study.

Closing my bedroom door and turning on a random playlist from the computer I had long-ago gotten monster-proofed, I selected a book from my shelf and got comfortable. My clock said five pm. I resolved to at least attempt some studying by eight, and my music faded from awareness as I started to read.

 **A little shorter than usual, but this chapter sets the scene for the rest of this three-shot. This story is and will be different than my others, both in the way it was written and in its content, so review and tell me what you think. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

_Where am I?_

This was my sole thought as I gazed at my surroundings, for I suddenly found myself in a forest. How had I gotten here? I had no memory of getting out of my chair. I had to be dreaming, but I never fell asleep while reading.

I settled into an all-to-familiar checklist. I'm in an unfamiliar place. Do I have my weapons? A press on my ring resulted in my shield, and squeezing my coin produced a sword. Okay, at least I have something, but when I tried to change my weapon's form, nothing happened. There's some kind of block on magic here, which is confirmed when I try to turn invisible or call up my bow and nothing happens.

Only slightly comforted—I much prefer the diversity of being able to change my weapon—I turned my focus to my surroundings.

I was in an open forest, mostly pine trees, but the few deciduous around are dark green. The trees said mid- to late-summer, but it should be early spring or late winter at high enough altitudes for a mostly boreal forest. The sun was low on the horizon and peeking through the trees surrounding me, but I won't know morning or evening for a few minutes more. I'm totally alone, though, and that's what worries me the most. I hope my brother and sister are alright.

I am here, and they are apparently not, however, so I pushed that out of my mind for the moment as I studied the sunlight. The sun seemed to be sinking, and knowing which way was west presented me with another choice: which direction to take. The area was mostly flat, meaning I couldn't take the easy path and go down. I decided to go north, because any high altitude, flat place I can think of near New Rome is south of a decent city, and I was still hoping I wasn't transported very far.

Keeping my footsteps light and the sun to my left, I pushed my way through the trees.

I only walked for a few minutes before I heard something. As I entered a small clearing, the bushes rustled off to my right, and I tensed. The rustle grew stronger, and I backed away, drawing my sword as I went. A minute later, I was both scared out of my mind and hoping I was near New Rome, because a werewolf emerged from the bushes and staggered towards me.

The wolf body, twisted to stand upright, lurched its way towards me, its head gibbering about "tasty Man-flesh," but all I could think of is that this was definitely not Lycaon. By this point, I was extremely confused, but I wasn't about to question the monster. I was much more concerned with surviving the encounter, especially considering I had yet to test the silver I had gotten Machaela to forge into the edge of my sword.

He—it—lunged, and I dodged out of the way while reflexively swiping with my sword. I breathed a sigh of relief when a deep gash appeared on the thing's leg, but my relief was short lived when it lunged again. I dove to the side, turning my fall into a roll so I ended up back on my feet behind the monster. Slicing my sword across its back, I danced away as it swiped again.

Without any sort of back-up, I stuck to a slash-and-dash fighting style. I knew I was slowly wearing the monster down, but I stayed relatively unscathed. I didn't want to find out if I could be injured in this dream. I fought like this for several minutes before I heard something large coming through the trees to my left. The wolf turned at the sound, leaving its side open, and I took advantage of its distraction. A moment later, the body slid off my sword to hit the ground.

I stared at the body uncomprehendingly, wondering why it didn't turn to dust. The crashing to my left got louder and closer, though, and I forced myself to face the new danger.

The new, very big danger, I corrected myself. I activated my shield and raised my sword higher at the Minotaur that crashed into the clearing.

Settling into a defensive stance, I waited for the monster to rush at me. Monsters _always_ made the first move, and I expected this one to be no different.

Except it was. Upon entering the clearing, the Minotaur stopped. With a glance at the dead werewolf at my feet and the bloody sword in my hand, the Minotaur just stood there, watching me. Given a moment to actually look at it—him—I could see the double-sided ax on his back and…was that intelligence in his gaze? I knew I had to be losing it or dreaming, but I slowly lowered my sword when he didn't attack.

Seeing my sword slowly lowered, he finally moved, and I brought my sword back up.

He stopped and huffed. "I will not attack you."

My eyes widened, and I stared at him, openmouthed. I _had_ to be dreaming. The Minotaur couldn't talk!

But I hadn't imagined it, for he spoke again as I stared at him. "Why do you look at me like that, filly?"

I stared at him another moment before deciding to answer. "Because the last time I met a Minotaur, it wasn't able to talk and it definitely wanted to kill me." I'm conversing with a Minotaur. Unless I woke up in my chair and this was all a dream, I decided I would enroll myself in therapy when I got back to New Rome, because I had to be hallucinating.

"I will not attack," he repeated. "I heard the battle and wanted to help, but you defeated the werewolf before I could get here."

I thought a moment. I decided to roll with this dream, hallucination, whatever, and I wanted to believe him, but, "Swear to it," I told him. "Swear by whatever holds you."

There was no hesitation. "I, Corbas, son of Corbin, swear by Aslan that I mean you no harm."

 _"Aslan_?!" I immediately cleaned and deactivated my sword and shield, whose seeming disappearance confused the Minotaur, Corbas, but I was much more focused on the One he had sworn by. "I'm in _Narnia_?"

He nodded sharply. "Aye. We are just south of Dancing Lawn. Come. Her Majesty will want to meet thee."

 _I'm in Narnia_. The revelation bounced around my head as I followed the quickly moving Corbas. Why am I here? How am I here? This makes a pretty sweet dream. Who is the current Queen?

I asked this last question aloud, and Corbas confused me more with the given answer. "Queens," he corrected. "We are in the fifth year of the reign of the Four. I am taking you to Queen Lucy."

I clamped my mouth shut to avoid blurting out my surprise. _Queen Lucy, fifth year of the reign of the Four_. I'd been hoping for years that Narnia was real, but never thought I would get to come, even in a very detailed dream. Then add that I came towards the beginning of the Four's reign; I didn't know what to think. In my world, the Four had been dead for decades, their stories lost but for what Lewis had published.

We came into a large clearing as I tried to organize my thoughts, and I stared around at the multitude of beings. Satyrs and Fauns were currently doing some kind of circular dance in the middle, with Dryads doing a counter-dance around the outside of the circle. Surrounding them, a host of other Animals—Bears, Cats great and small, Wolves, and other creatures I had no immediate name for—tapped out the beat or continued their own version of the dance. Never one for dancing, I couldn't make out the steps, much less hope to imitate it, but I quickly spotted a young girl dancing among the Dryads.

Thirteen-year-old Queen Lucy was everything Lewis had described. Full of life and energy, she danced with the Dryads counter-clockwise around the circle, tapping and spinning to a beat so fast and lively I found myself tapping one foot along.

Corbas caught a Centaur's attention, who called together some of the guards in the area. A sentence or two later, they broke away and headed back where Corbas and I had come from, probably to take care of the body and scout for more Fell. Corbas, however, waited for the current song to finish before he caught the Queen's attention. She bounced over with a grin, still dancing to the music though the musicians had stopped.

"Who's your friend, Corbas?"

Doing a rough curtsy—rather difficult in jeans—I answered for myself. "My name is Grace, Your Majesty."

She pulled a face at the title. "I'm not in court," she told me. "Please, call me Lucy. I don't believe I've seen you around here before."

"That would be because thirty minutes ago, I was at home reading a book." I glanced back at the dancers as I continued, "I've no idea how I got here." I didn't think my dream theory worth mentioning. Besides, announcing to a good dream that you know you're dreaming is a sure way to wake up, and I wanted to stay here a while.

"Then you will be needing a place to stay. Come with us!" She pulled me into a whirlwind of activity, chattering all the while.

The dancers seemed to be packing up, anyway, though what the reason for the dancing had been, I never did ask, so I joined the group as they turned northeast.

Lucy tried very hard to draw me into conversation, but I was too stunned at my surroundings. I was also trying very hard not to give away how much I knew about a land I had never set foot in. (I was _not_ fangirling and trying to hide it. I was just…very excited to be here. Yeah, that was it.) When attempts to get a conversation going all but failed—I remained polite, but quiet—she stayed close by but started chattering with, or maybe at, I couldn't tell, one of the Dryads.

Watching Lucy bounce around, I grinned. Her infectious energy reminded me of a cousin I had long ago lost contact with. My cousin, constantly bouncing from one thing to the next, sometimes literally, had earned herself the nickname Rabbit, because she was a rabbit on a sugar high.

Opening my mind to one memory, however, let another squeeze through, and I tried to hide a wince. The memory of a practical joke I had played on Jeff bubbled up from the corner I had last shoved it, and I fought to push it back before a flashback took over. How I could still have those while dreaming, I didn't know, but if I ever met Morpheus, I would have some very choice words for him. It was bad enough those happened while I was awake.

The sound of my name brought me out of my internal battle, and I looked over to find Lucy, strangely still, staring at me with slight concern showing on her face.

"Are you alright?" she asked. I raised an eyebrow and opened my mouth to say "of course," but she moved closer, lowering her voice so that only I could hear her. "I suppose I should not pry. Peter _has_ been trying to teach me that, but you seem so sad. Can I help?"

I stared at her a moment, trying to find my words and wrap my head around how much Lucy had matured since the events surrounding her coronation. I knew without a doubt she wouldn't have all but apologized for prying, much less have noticed my expression, when she had been eight. I found myself actually _wanting_ to tell her what was on my mind, but I wouldn't, not all of it.

"Thank you," I finally answered, "but it's nothing you can help with. Only two could change it, and neither of them are here."

"Where are they?"

"One is in the other world, where I was before I found myself here, but he's a couple thousand miles from where I live. The only other is the One you call Aslan."

At the name of the Lion her face brightened considerably, and mine probably did too, if the lightness in my heart was anything to go by. I grasped at the lightness, trying to keep it, implant it in me so I could carry it always, but, like every other time, it slipped away, and I was left only slightly better than I had been.

I refocused on Lucy to find her deep in thought. Her face cleared a moment later, and she told me, "Well, then I guess we'll just have to take you to Aslan so He can fix it." I stared at her, wondering several things. Somehow, she picked up on my largest unasked question and answered it. "He's going to be at the Stone Table tomorrow," she giggled in excitement, drawing a smile out of me. "We'll take you to Him tomorrow, and—"

I never did find out what else she intended to say, for right then the rest of that crazy Werewolf's sparse pack found us, running ahead of the guard Corbas had sent out, and I found myself in the midst of the protective circle that formed around Lucy.

"Are you armed?" I asked Lucy, raising my voice a bit to be heard above the sounds of battle and disregarding for the moment that I should address her with more of the respect due her title. She showed me her dagger, which would do almost nothing against a Werewolf.

A glance around me showed the area dissolving into a melee, and I knew she needed something. The guards would do anything to stay near us, well, her, but there were just enough Werewolves around to make that difficult, and she needed some kind of protection should she get separated.

Making my decision, I slid my ring off my finger and grabbed her left hand. "I want this back after the battle, please." Before she could ask why I was giving her my ring, I pressed the center stone, activating the shield. It was a bit large for her frame, but I hadn't been much older than her when I first got it, so it would do. I stifled a chuckle at the utter confusion on her face—Narnia doesn't have many magical weapons—but she didn't question it for now.

"Back to back," I told her. "Dagger up. Circle slowly. I can handle a Werewolf, and I'll guard your back." Activating my sword, I wished yet again for my bow. For now, the others were keeping the monsters far enough away I would help best with a longer-range weapon, but wishing wouldn't help anything. I focused on my surroundings, half-hoping one would come near enough to take out.

There weren't many Werewolves to begin with, so the only reason the skirmish lasted as long as it did was their element of surprise. One by one, the attacking Werewolves fell to the Narnian blades, and soon the guard we were travelling with reformed around the two of us. When half the guard had returned, I relaxed my stance against Lucy's back and turned to face her.

She was examining my shield as I turned, and I smothered a smile. I didn't completely cover it, though, because she gave me a slight pout when she glanced up.

"It's stuck to my arm," she told me.

"Let me see." She held her arm out to me, and I looked in front of her hand. Sure enough, her fingers weren't quite long enough to bump the switch. I pressed the switch on the shield and a moment later my ring rested on her finger.

"How does it do that?" she asked, watching with amazement as my sword shrunk into a coin, which I then slipped in my pocket.

She handed me my ring as I answered. "Very skilled blacksmithing, and a little bit of magic." She looked about to ask me for details, but I shook my head. "It is something unique to my home, and I'm grateful it even works here. The magic element must be intertwined with the smithing element perfectly, and the magic here is not the same magic as what was used."

By the time I finished speaking, the few remaining skirmishes had ended, and I joined those helping the wounded. While not as good as Machaela, I knew enough to be of help.

Wary of another attack, however, the small party hurried to gather and treat the wounded and get to the castle; I ended up carrying a small Cat with a deep gash on one leg. The remaining walk to the Cair didn't take very long, for which I was thankful, and soon enough I handed the Cat, a talkative Tabby named Firestar, to one of the apprentice healers.

Without an injured Cat to worry about, I had no way to hide my awe of the castle. Even well past dark, Cair Paravel was clearly visible in the light of the full moon, and it was _huge_ , easily bigger than all of New Rome. I knew I would end up exploring at least part of it as soon as I could…and hopefully not getting lost.

Lucy brought me out of my thoughts by dragging over her sister. At seventeen, Queen Susan was closer to my height, but her personality was definitely the calm to her sister's energy.

"You wish to see Aslan?" she confirmed after Lucy made her bubbly introductions. I nodded, knowing I could never make myself heard over the din of the others in the courtyard, and Queen Susan gave me a gentle smile. "Then come," she told me as she gestured to a nearby lady, a Cherry Dryad if her hair was any indication, "Dinah will guide you to your room so you can freshen up. I'll send a meal up to your room, and tomorrow you can accompany those of us going to the Stone Table."

I thanked her, and she moved off to see to someone else as I followed Dinah into the castle.

 **Only 1 more chapter left. Don't forget to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Knowing I probably wouldn't sleep tonight (who could? I'm in _Narnia_ ), I paid careful attention to which path Dinah took to reach my room. I wanted to be able to find my way back to the courtyard later.

Three floors, two hallways, and countless beautiful tapestries later, Dinah stopped in front of a heavy wooden door.

"Here we are," she said in a light, almost breathy voice that I hadn't expected. "There are a couple of guards down the hall should you need anything."

I thanked her, and she turned back the way we had come as I opened the door. Gazing around the room, I remembered reading somewhere that, in such a large castle, the rooms are also naturally large, and I found that to be an understatement. Just the bathroom, with the marble sink and golden claw-foot bathtub that was probably three feet deep, was easily five of my dorm room. The bedroom, complete with a table, wardrobe, and four-poster canopy king sized bed, was about double that. If this was the size of the guest room, I couldn't imagine what living quarters would be.

Deciding a bath sounded like a good idea, what with the layers of grit and who knows what else on my clothes, I grabbed a towel and made use of the soap next to the tub to clean up. As I finished, I heard someone closing the bedroom door; when I peeked out, I found fresh clothes laying on the bed.

Grateful that they hadn't given me a dress, I put on the tunic and trousers, ate a bit from the tray, and decided to explore. Dream or not, I knew better than to stop moving. The minute I stopped before exhaustion forced me to sleep, I would be locked in the memory I had pushed back earlier, and I didn't want that to knock me out of this wonderful dream.

I stood at my door, deciding which way to go. Left would lead me back towards the courtyard, depending on the hallway I chose, but I eventually decided to turn right. I had my own hopes as to where this would lead me, but either way, it was something new. As I stepped away from the door, a thought occurred to me, and I went back into the room. Grabbing a piece of paper, quill, and ink I remembered spotting on the table, I wrote a quick, and likely slightly messy, note explaining that I had gone exploring and had turned right from my door. The quill and ink was…different. Considering I always wrote in cursive, I didn't find the quill much different from a faulty ink pen, but I could definitely see why people had tried so hard to move past the quill.

Leaving the note in the most conspicuous place I could, I set out to explore what I could of the castle between now and sunrise, when I was to meet Queens Susan and Lucy to go to the Stone Table.

Every hallway had many, many tapestries. Some I knew, like the coronation of King Frank I and Queen Helen and the story of the defeat of the White Witch, but others were very new to me. I saw one that depicted a young boy standing up to a Giant—an Ettin, maybe?—alone, holding a sling shot. The next one showed that same boy standing victorious over the Giant. Grinning at the parallel, I wasn't surprised when the next tapestry showed the same boy, now very much older, crowned king, his wife at his side. On another hallway and a floor down, I found a tapestry depicting a ship tossing on the waves while many figures appeared to rush around the deck. All were armed, but I couldn't see what the danger was. The tapestry was very old and slightly faded, and I wondered when the event had occurred.

I explored like this for an hour or two, finding countless tapestries telling many stories, before I found my favorite room in the castle: the library. I stared, probably openmouthed, at shelf after shelf and row after row of books and scrolls and pictures spread throughout the giant room. This library was probably two or three times bigger than the Library of Congress!

Someone chuckled to my left, and I turned to see a Nymph watching me with some amusement.

"You may read the books, Child," she told me, "instead of staring at them."

A large grin split my face, both at her gentle teasing and at the permission to pick out a book. "Where would Narnian history books be?" I asked.

She flicked a finger at me to follow her and led me to a specific shelf to the right of the door. "You would be looking for this row," she told me as she grabbed a book from the row at knee-height, "and this one makes a good place to start."

I couldn't kill the giant grin on my face as she handed the thin book to me. "Thank you very much," I told her sincerely, but my gaze had strayed to the books lining the shelf. I no longer cared whether this was a dream, kidnapping, or hallucination. It was the best night _ever_.

I spent the entire night in the library, reading book after book and thoroughly enjoying myself. The book the Nymph—Taasla, I later found out her name was—had given me turned out to be the first of several volumes detailing the centuries of history stretching all the way back to King Frank I. When I finished that one, I grabbed the next one on the row, and in this way read the night away.

Knowing I only had a handful of hours until sunrise, I skimmed through parts of the books to get to the bits I found interesting and worth remembering, and by doing this I was able to finish most of the series. In fact, I was just finishing the last paragraph of the last book when Dinah walked in following a Hummingbird I had seen flitting around a few minutes prior.

"Have you been here all night?" she asked me, gazing wide-eyed at the small, neat stack of books I had next to me.

I look up at her, slightly concerned. "Yes. There's not a problem with that, is there?"

She wiped the surprise off her face. "No, of course not. Most people do need to sleep, though. Even the Centaur have been in bed for hours."

I let a small smile show. "I couldn't sleep, so I started exploring." She nodded, having obviously found the note I left. "I found the library sometime around midnight and have been here ever since." I looked toward the nearest window. "Is it time to go?"

"You have just enough time to grab something to eat from the kitchens before you must be down in the courtyard," she answered.

Hurriedly putting the books back on their shelf, I followed her down to the kitchen, then out to the courtyard where a small group was gathering.

"There you are!" I heard as we neared the group. I looked over to see Lucy bouncing her way towards me, way too energetic for this early in the morning. "Did you sleep well?" she asked, grinning up at me.

I nodded my head in greeting as I answered with a smile, "Good morning, Lucy. I found your library last night. That was much better than sleeping."

She giggled. "You sound like a friend of mine. She would always rather read than sleep, especially if there were new books around."

Wondering if I knew who she was referring to, I answered, "She and I would probably get along great, then. Is she here?"

Lucy shook her head, curls bouncing. "She promised to help my brother with something today."

It probably _was_ who I was thinking of, but I didn't get a chance to ask as the group started to move.

The walk to the Stone Table was uneventful. I stayed near Lucy, who stayed near Queen Susan, and they both talked on and off with the others around us. I joined in now and again, but mostly I enjoyed simply listening. I had stopped actively wondering how I had gotten here, resolving to simply enjoy it while it lasted, and I used the travel time to take in the scenery.

Everything seemed somehow _more_ than it was back home. The sky was bluer. The grass was greener. The trees were taller. The air was more pure. We walked within earshot of the shore for a short while, and I listened to the surf, watching for a glimpse of a mermaid whenever we briefly came within sight of the sea. As we moved further inland, I watched Naiads and Dryads come out of their homes to greet the Queens, along with various other Animals. Squirrels bounced through the trees, chattering the latest news and excited that Aslan had passed by there a few hours prior. The closer we got to the Table, the taller and more ancient the trees became and the quieter the travelling crowd got. We were entering holy ground, and I could tell everyone knew that.

Soon enough, a Voice began carrying through the trees, and we came into a clearing around the Stone Table. I could see it, some thirty yards away, cracked in two, but what caught my gaze was who, or rather Who, stood in front of it.

The great, golden Lion stood some ten feet ahead of the Table, gently teaching all who would listen. Someone called a question every so often, which He would usually answer aloud, and I saw a small group gathered off to the side I suspected were here to ask for healing. Suddenly shy, I followed the Queens to sit in the back.

He seemed to change topics as we sat down. "Blessed are the meek," He said in a deep, gentle voice as my breath caught at the familiar words. "They will receive a great inheritance."

The sound of His voice picked me up and swept through me as a storm sweeps through a valley, filling me with joy and longing for something I had never truly known.

"Blessed are the merciful; they will be shown mercy. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled."

Filled. I wanted to be filled, not just with righteousness, but with something else, though I couldn't yet put a name to it.

"Blessed are those that mourn, for they will be comforted."

Those that mourn. Yes, that applied to me in a way, for was I not mourning the end of a long friendship? I felt a memory trying to push its way up, but I was too focused on listening for it to take over.

"Blessed are the peacemakers. Those that exalt themselves will be brought low, and he that humbles himself will be exalted. Do not let your hearts be troubled, for you are Mine, and I will not forsake My own."

His, oh I know I am His, though the name I know Him by is not the name of this world. I could vaguely hear the Queens talking beside me, likely commenting on the joy I now realize is in my face, but I didn't—couldn't—break my focus from Him.

"Call to me in your hardship. My grace is enough for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness."

If He ever turned His head, I was unaware. For all I knew, none of what I heard was audible to anyone but me, but I didn't take the time to think on that then. Whether anyone else could hear it didn't change that _I_ could. I could hear it, and I needed to hear it.

"Do not be afraid. Rejoice! Your sorrow can be turned into joy."

 _How? How, when it seems so overwhelming?_

"Peace." The word sounded close to a purr. "Peace be unto you."

Yes. Peace, that's what I want. That's what I couldn't put a name to.

"My peace I give to you."

Please, yes, I want peace. Peace for whatever is to come. Peace to accept it as it is. Peace I can keep, gather it in and hold it close.

"Not as the world gives and takes away. Do not let your heart be troubled. Do not be afraid, for I give you My peace."

My vision seemed to tunnel, and I only saw the Lion, who appeared to be staring directly at me.

 _Peace_. The word is at once a whisper and a roar, deafening yet inaudible, strong yet soft. _Peace_ , I hear again, overwhelming the quieter voice of Queen Susan bidding me farewell, and I'm swept into the current of love and sweet, calming peace. _Peace_ , I hear once more, and I reopen my eyes to find myself in my chair.

I simply sat there a minute, fully enjoying the _peace_ I had and completely ignoring the music still playing from my computer. With a tap of a key, I turned it off without even trying to recognize the song. For the first time in weeks, maybe months, I was totally at peace.

 _Thank you. Thank you. Thank you._ The words became a prayer, for I knew no other words to say. Finally, I could recall memories of good times, and they didn't take over, demanding attention and emotion and time. The peace flooding through me had banished the flashbacks; I was firmly back in the present. There was still a twinge of lingering hurt that the friendship was likely over, but it wasn't all-consuming. His grace was enough. I would survive even if the friendship didn't.

Opening my Bible, I didn't have to know the reference for my finger to find the correct page, and I read the words that were still lingering in my memory, hearing them in my mind as I had just heard them.

"Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

I had no inclination to even move, not wanting to ruin the peace soaring through my soul, the sweet, soaring, calming, wondrous peace, but my phone started buzzing. A tentative thread of hope took hold when I saw Jeff's name on the caller ID, but that's not what made me nearly miss the call.

The clock said 5:01 pm.

 **Hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to review. Like it? Is there anything I could improve on?**


End file.
